The ASIO driver it provides is great, but when using
heavy CPU/Memory consuming VSTi as multiple strings or
strumming instruments… sound starts to chop (not sure about the word)
Low latency is not important, I just want to be able to play the sequenced
composition without having to render.
I checked steinberg Generic low latency ASIO driver and it seems to work
much better than my asio driver. I also checked ASIO4all but it’s worse.
Trying to get rid of the chopping, I upgraded RAM from 8Gb to 16Gb, and the
hard drive to SSD… but it still chops…
Have you played around with the buffer settings? If latency is no major concern you should be able to increase the buffer - try 1024 then see from there.
Yeah, what BriHar says…but personally I’d say to get a better audio interface You have what seems to be a very powerful computer. Any decent audio interface should have it’s own stable drivers, in which you should always use that IMO.
The audio interfaces I’d consider for myself are the upper end one’s by RME, Steinberg, Tascam, Antelope as my 1st choices…among a couple of others. If you’re on a low budget, Steinberg has the UR22 & UR44 for a very reasonable price!
The Creative Audigy 2 platinum Pro was the last attempt by Creative to produce a serious card for music production, and a very decent interface it was at the time. Creative’s image was already too tainted by and within the music recording crowd that it got too little attention, and it seems Creative finally gave up and returned to concentrate fully on their core know-how i.e gaming and consumer apps.
As the pc is at the store right now waiting for my decision about
a new motherboard (just to fix the onboard audio) or a new soundcard…
no onboard testing has been done except with creative xfi xtrememusic.
when using higher buffer, sound became unstable aswell.
I have a low budget, so as I’m not planning to record anything (just sequencing
with a mouse and standard pc keyboard), I’m looking for anything to just accelerate
vst instruments and effects (no audio inputs needed)
I checked asio4all, creative asio and steinberg asio with high buffer… 512, 1024
All became unstable, steinberg seemed to be the one that last longer before break.
If I turn off all effects, sound becomes nearly perfect.
If I turn off the heavy vst, I can use the effects…
The thing is, during all these tests…
CPU & RAM usage at windows resource monitor never exceeded 30%
If that remaining 70% CPU & RAM could be used somehow
Again, it sounds like you have a decent computer (at least CPU & ram wise), but I just noticed that you only have ONE SSD drive, it’s pretty much a ‘standard’ to have a 2nd physical hard drive to put all your samples/VSTi content into so you don’t overwork/bottleneck one drive…your OS/Progarms drive in this case. I don’t know how much of this importance has changed with SSD drives now, but it’s still valid to a high degree because most serious DAW users use more than one HDD, even when using SSD’s. Perhaps you’re bottlenecking with your one SSD hard drive? Have you checked your disk usage?
I use three regular HDD’s in my DAW…
HDD #1 - OS/Programs
HDD #2 - Recorded Audio/Projects
HDD #3 - Samples/VSTi content
I’m not an expert or anything, but I’m pretty sure I’ve read that even though you’re only using VSTi’s and basically working ‘in the box’ and not recording any audio, you still benefit from using a proper interface, one that’s designed for use with DAW’s…either for the consumer home studio, or pro studio markets. Someone who knows more than me could explain, but I ‘believe’ this has something to do with having proper ASIO drivers & converters. I’m still not convinced your sound card is quite doing it for you either.
I understand all too well about low budgets … but something has to give, and my two guesses that if you were to install a 2nd drive, and a more appropriate card, your system may run better.
You have what seems to be a very powerful computer. Any decent audio interface should have it’s own stable drivers, in which you should always use that IMO.